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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Tennessee Wildfires; What Happened to Sherri Papini; Burglars Caught on Video; Mom Charged with Overdosing While Shopping with Toddler; Former Playmate Apologizes for Secret Pic; Passenger Jumps Out of Jet`s Exit Door; Anthony`s Ex-Lawyer Arrested in Drug Smuggling Plot. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired November 29, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST: Raging inferno in Tennessee, wildfires come roaring into this town, scorching entire buildings, forcing
thousands of people to literally to run for their lives and leaving behind a landscape that honestly looks more like a war zone.
`And now this breaking news. Three people are dead because of it.
`(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
`(voice-over): Across parts of Tennessee, over 1,000 homes decimated. And now wildfires take a tragic human toll.
`The mystery of the missing California mom deepens tonight as her husband reveals her jaw-dropping condition when he got to the hospital.
`Smile! You`re a dirty rotten thief and you`re caught on camera, robbing and ransacking a couple`s home.
`Investigators say the Ohio State student who rammed his car into pedestrians, then went on a stabbing spree was encouraged by terrorists on
line.
`(END VIDEO CLIP)
`BANFIELD: Hi, everybody. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. We have breaking news. Tennessee is burning and hurting, and now Tennessee`s wildfires are
killing. Three people are now reported dead from the fires are raging across that state. The pictures tell this story, folks. The inferno is
destroying homes and hotels and entire buildings and is forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and run for safety.
`(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
`UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was trees on fire in front of our -- where we were at. So we tried to get to our car, and the smoke was so bad, we
couldn`t. We covered our faces with wet towels. And then we finally got in the car, and we drove down the mountain a little ways and we ran into a
tree that was over the road, and we just watched a building go down in flames to the right of us. Then we pulled in front of another building
that wasn`t on fire yet.
`(END VIDEO CLIP)
`BANFIELD: Gatlinburg, hardest hit by the rolling inferno, is almost unrecognizable today. The ferocious winds and the severe drought have just
added fuel to these fires.
`Our CNN correspondent Brian Todd was able to make his way there. He is live on the scene tonight. I think it`s a lot of first responders I`m
seeing behind you there. But I just need you to tell me what the scene is like, Brian.
`BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT Ashleigh, it`s still a very dangerous situation here. We just got an update a short time ago from the Tennessee
Emergency Management Agency, which says that there are still several fires burning in this area.
`As of now, about 14,000 people have been evacuated, and the firefighters can`t get to every area yet to assess the damage and to try to help some
others out if they need it. It`s still a very dangerous situation.
`They`re going to get a little bit of help from the weather overnight, Ashleigh, but they also may be hurt by the weather because there is a storm
system coming through that may dump an inch, maybe an inch-and-a-half of rainfall. That will really help firefighters.
`But there could also be some winds. There`s going to be a wind event here overnight and into tomorrow, maybe winds gusting up to 60 miles an hour.
So those winds will fan the flames even further. Those winds got up to hurricane force winds at the height of this storm. They`ve also got
tornadoes to watch out for. There`s a tornado watch in effect for this area, so still very, very dangerous around here, Ashleigh.
`A tourist who was in this area, Barrett McLaughlin, spoke about what he and his family went through a short time ago. Take a listen.
`(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
`BARRETT MCLAUGHLIN, TOURIST: As we were coming back from the grocery store, the smoke was just oppressive. And as we got closer to where we
knew sort of the area of our cabin was, we realized that the mountain was on fire. Not even just that orange glow, but watching it burn and trees
coming down across the road and volunteer firemen out there that couldn`t do anything because the winds were gusting so fast and so strong that it
was too dangerous for them to be up there and just having them tell us that we -- you know, here`s where the shelter is. Go there. They`ll have more
information. We`re sorry.
`(END VIDEO CLIP)
`BANFIELD: Brian, you know, other people have described what is going on in your area as apocalyptic. Seeing the fire pictures, we understand that.
Seeing the aftermath, we really understand that. All of the people who were in these structures that are now just rubble, it`s somewhere upwards
of about 14,000, 15,000.
`How much time did they have to get out of there? How fast did this fire come in?
`TODD: Well, Ashleigh, this fire came on very quickly to so many people. You know, we talked about the winds. They got up to hurricane force
strength, 88 miles an hour in some cases. Those winds took fire embers and carried them for miles at a time and then dumped them on trees that were
set afire because the trees were like match sticks. This drought here has been going on since April, so the trees here very, very dry.
`All of it combined to create a wildfire situation where the flames were moving incredibly fast. It came upon people almost before they knew it.
We spoke to someone earlier, a man who was getting his family out of town, out of Gatlinburg earlier today, I believe, and the man said that the smoke
-- it was yesterday I believe he was getting his family out. He said the smoke and the flames were so intense that they -- he was caravanning with
his wife, and he was right behind her car in his car, and he couldn`t even see her car.
`[20:05:18]BANFIELD: Oh, my!
`TODD: And the smoke was that bad. And he said his 1-year-old daughter was choking in the back seat. It was a harrowing situation for people,
Ashleigh, as they tried to get out of here.
`BANFIELD: As you`re talking -- Brian, as you`re talking, there are pictures to the right-hand side of our screen, honestly, what I can only
say looks like Aleppo. It looks like something in the middle of Syria. It is just decimated. It looks like a bomb went off. You can`t recognize
what some of these structures were. They`re still smoldering. And it also does look somewhat tornadic. It looks like what happens after a tornado
goes through with a fire.
`Shannon Patter is one of the people who was in this and is the owner of Old Dad`s General Store in Gatlinburg. Shannon decided not to leave.
Shannon stayed because Shannon wanted to be able to feed the first responders.
`Shannon, are you with me?
`SHANNON PATTERSON, STORE OWNER (via telephone): I am.
`BANFIELD: How are you? Are you OK?
`PATTERSON: Exhausted, but everyone up here is exhausted. It`s -- it`s been a tragic day up here.
`BANFIELD: It just -- it`s hard to believe you could survive this, staying where you were. And I have seen the pictures. But I don`t live where you
live. I`m not looking at it first hand. Is it as bad as the pictures I`m seeing? It truly looks like a war zone.
`PATTERSON: I think it`s worse than the pictures that I`ve seen. Now, let me say this. The first responders, the emergency responders, did a great
job for saving downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The infrastructure looks great. But once you get on a back street outside the strip here, it looks
like a war zone on every angle.
`BANFIELD: Were you OK? Like, were you -- was it a smart decision for to you stay? I understand you wanted to help those people who were helping
you, but was your life in danger at any time?
`PATTERSON: No, and it wasn`t. I did not stay the whole night here. I was at my house. I was hearing all the rumors. You know how social media
just blows up. About 2:30 or 3:00, I decided to come up here because I heard the whole block where one of my businesses was on fire. And I`ve got
a -- my father-in-law`s restaurant`s across the street on both sides of me. We had heard those was burning. Came up here, and this block was safe, but
everything around it was burned. And the least I could do...
`BANFIELD: Well, I can`t imagine that you are still where you are, given what we`re seeing on our screen. Shannon, stand by for a minute, if you
will.
`Robert Rowe is a fire investigator. He`s the president of Pyrocop, Incorporated. Robert, they`re saying now -- the authorities are saying
that they believe that this fire was, quote, "human caused." And I don`t know that they`re saying intentional, unintentional. I don`t know that
they even know at this point. How do they even know that it would be human caused?
`ROBERT ROWE, FIRE INVESTIGATOR: Well, they have to rule out -- an investigation, you`re required to rule out all potential accidental causes.
And once do that, then you can start focusing on the human factor. You`re absolutely correct by saying that -- you know, by calling it human factor,
it`s not necessarily arson. It`s just that there is a human factor involved. It could be accidental, could be a camp fire, could be
carelessly discarded cigarettes, that type of thing.
`BANFIELD: And then other question I have for you is they talked about this being a perfect storm, that literally, all of these things had to come
into confluence, the hurricane-force winds, this remarkable drought that has gone on and on for years, low humidity and downed power lines, which by
the way, the winds and the falling trees were taking power lines down, and those sparking lines were causing yet even more fires. Is this sort of the
100-year scenario, or is this the kind of thing that actually can happen a lot?
`ROWE: Well, you know, in California, we always have problems with brushfires. This is unique in the fact that the trees are much -- the
leaves and the branches are much higher. The fire travels much quicker across the treetops, and the risk below is much greater than in the
lowlands of California, but nonetheless, equally as dangerous.
`BANFIELD: I just want to go back to Shannon Patterson, if I can. He`s in the middle of all of this, so he`s joining us by telephone, understandably.
Shannon are you -- you know, I hate to use the expression, are you out of the woods yet, because I believe that there is truly not much left around
you. But are you safe, and is the worst behind you? Are you going to have to evacuate?
`PATTERSON: I hope so, the worst is behind us. But there is an eerie feeling up here. There`s fire trucks everywhere. They are waiting on the
embers to be blown down the hill, I have been told, just whenever the winds start.
`We have fed about 400 service workers up here today. There`s many more up here, and I`ve just been hearing stories, from there`s a thousand houses
burned down to 1,500 to -- and they`re saying that there`s embers all filling those house, and if the winds shift, they could just come right
over the mountain top and land right on Gatlinburg. And that`s what they`re worried about.
`[20:00:16]BANFIELD: Shannon, please -- you know, be careful, please. And you are magnanimous beyond words to have helped your fellow rescuers and
first responders. But please be careful for yourself and your family. And God bless you and your neighbors as you try put the pieces back together.
I mean, Tennessee really is hurting.
`To all my guests, thank you. We`ll continue to watch the story there in Tennessee.
`And then I also have this story for you. The defense has decided now to rest in the case of that former South Carolina police officer who was
charged with killing an unarmed black man, but not before the defendant himself took stand, Michael Slager speaking on his own behalf.
`He is the man who`s accused of gunning down Walter Scott after pulling him over for a broken taillight. And then he`s accused of lying about why he
shot Walter Scott. Last April`s shooting, you`ll remember -- oh! This harrowing, harrowing scene caught on cell phone video.
`Slager`s dashcam also was rolling at a different area. The bystander, though, saw this. Prosecutors say what Slager told investigators, that
Scott had grabbed his taser, does not match, however, the video evidence.
`(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
`UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you agree that even if Mr. Scott the had that taser, it could not have been used against you at the distance depicted on
that video?
`MICHAEL SLAGER, CHARGED WITH MURDER: At that time, I didn`t have that information. So I can`t answer that question.
`UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`ve seen the video.
`SLAGER: I have.
`UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you`ve heard that he was 18 feet away. Would you agree that he was not a threat to you with that taser, without a cartridge,
from that distance?
`SLAGER: No.
`UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So you`re going to stick to that.
`SLAGER: Yes. And the reason is, from 18 feet, he could have turned around and attacked me again.
`(END VIDEO CLIP)
`BANFIELD: Michael Slager is also facing separate federal civil rights charges over Walter Scott`s death. The city of North Charleston has
already approved a $6.5 million civil settlement with Walter Scott`s family.
`Also breaking tonight, six people have been pulled alive from this, imagine it, alive, the wreckage of a crash of a charter flight carrying a
soccer team from Brazil. There were 71 passengers on board this plane that did not make it. Crash happened late last night. That team was flying to
Colombia to prepare for a match on Wednesday in that country.
`Authorities say at least three players, two members of the crew and a reporter covering the team are among those who somehow were able to survive
this wreckage. Investigators have now recovered the jet`s black boxes, and they hope that that will help them to figure out what on earth brought that
plane down.
`Sherri Papini and the story of the brutal violence that was exacted against her while she was missing for three weeks. Now her husband is
talking and he is telling us about what she endured, giving us excruciating details about what happened to her in those three weeks.
`(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
`[20:17:22]BANFIELD: After her weeks-long disappearance, the mystery only has intensified after Sherri Papini was found a alive. But she was beaten
and she was chained. Now her husband, Keith Papini, is giving some very graphic details in a public statement about his wife`s condition, the first
time he laid eyes upon her after arriving at the hospital. And this is what he said.
`"My first sight was my wife in a hospital bed, her face covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of repeated beatings, the bridge of
her nose broken. Her now emaciated body, just 87 pounds, was covered in multicolored bruises, severe burns, red rashes and chain markings. Her
signature long blond hair had been chopped off. She has been branded. And I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers."
`Steve Gibson is the news director for KQMS radio, and he joins me live now. Do we know anything more about this, Steve, any more about motive,
who did this and how she got away like this?
`STEVE GIBSON, KQMS (via telephone): Well, that`s the great mystery, is the motive behind this crime, is there doesn`t appear to be a motive at
this time. What`s known is no money ever exchanged hands. Although there was more than $50,000 reward money and an open-ended amount offered as
ransom by an anonymous man, apparently, no money changed hands and no ransom was ever demanded. So the motive remains a mystery.
`BANFIELD: What about the search at this point? Do they have anything more to go on in terms of these -- the description that apparently she`s
given, two Hispanic females with a handgun? That`s it. Do we know anything else?
`GIBSON: That`s a very vague description, and that`s all that at least the public at least has gotten. And the sheriff`s office says if they had had
anything else in terms of description of the suspects, they certainly would release it because they want badly to catch these people. Just two
Hispanic women armed with a handgun in a dark-colored SUV is the only description.
`They`re questioning Sherri almost daily, they`re interviewing her, hoping to jog her memory. Obviously, she`s suffering from some sort of PTSD from
this very traumatic incident, and some of those details may be buried.
`BANFIELD: So Steve, there have been a few different and separate interviews, as I understand it from authorities. One more thing that we`re
learning about what happened to Sherri. And it`s extraordinarily violent if you think about -- just imagine for a moment, you`re her.
`[20:20:00]This is what her husband said. "She was thrown from a vehicle with a chain around her waist, attached to her wrists, and a bag over her
head, the same bag she used to flag someone down once she was able to free one of her hands."
`Steve, do we know anything about the people who rescued her? Are they able to shed any light on anything at all? Did they see anything else?
`GIBSON: All that they have said is they saw a woman who seemed very inappropriately dressed for the cold weather. And she appeared to be in
distress, though that distress is -- though she was -- no, no, really no details about the perpetrators have come from this witness.
`BANFIELD: And then we have been told that she`s been reunited with her family. And to that end, you know, her husband has been very frustrated
with the kinds of treatment that they`ve been getting from the community. They`ve received all sorts of very nasty communications suggesting that
this has been a hoax, perhaps people frustrated with the lack of details on what happened.
`Let me read for you what he wrote about that. "Rumors, assumptions, lies and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting. I understand people
want the story, pictures, proof that this was not some sort of hoax, a plan to gain money or some fabricated race war. I do not see a purpose in
addressing each preposterous lie."
`And yet we still don`t have any information, Steve. We`re still asking authorities, what happened? What more can you tell us? What is she saying
about all of this? And they`re keeping very tight-lipped. Do we know why they are keeping so tight-lipped?
`GIBSON: Well, they`re -- they say that they have some information that they haven`t released, but I think that`s probably personal information
involving Sherri herself.
`In terms of the malicious comments and accusations and reckless speculation that`s been made, that`s what follows any sensational story.
When people don`t know things, they fill it in with their imagination. And people feel free to engage in this reckless speculation when they`re under
the cloak of anonymity such as in an on-line chat.
`BANFIELD: Hold that thought for a minute. Robert Schalk here in New York -- he`s a former prosecutor. Danny Cevallos is with me, as well, defense
attorney and CNN and HLN legal analyst.
`Guys, the one thing that I am curious about is this very detailed statement that the husband has written about what happened to his wife, the
condition he found her in. And we`re told that the authorities are vetting a lot of it still. Did he compromise anything by going ahead and releasing
these things when the sheriff and the authorities wouldn`t?
`DANNY CEVALLOS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: As a general rule, you fall back on the notion that don`t ever speak on behalf of anybody
else. Don`t give statements, especially in this case, where a lot of it seems to be reacting to some sort of perceived anger on social media or
hate or whatever it is he`s calling it. You know, look, if that`s a problem for you, just stay off the social media.
`I would just hold off on making any statements that might be used against your spouse later on. Then at the same time, if he doesn`t have any
knowledge, he doesn`t have any knowledge.
`BANFIELD: For instance, Bob, what about the notion that he said she was chained at the waist and her hands were chained to her waist. Does that
say potentially to perpetrators out there, Get rid of that damn chain?
`ROBERT SCHALK, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Exactly. I mean, the- law enforcement is tight-lipped a great deal of the time because they don`t want to tip off
potential perpetrators that they`re investigating. They could destroy evidence now. They could become on the run, leave the state, et cetera.
`The reason they aren`t releasing information is because they`re still in the ground stages of peeling back the onion of their investigation. Him
coming out and speaking potentially could compromise what they`re trying to accomplish, and that is, if this was, in fact, not a hoax -- and I`m not
saying that it was, but if this was an abduction, they wants to find the people who did this. And that`s more important than you responding to
social media, as Danny said.
`BANFIELD: And more important than the public`s right to know what happened. All in its good time. But does certainly sow a lot of curiosity
and frustration, so I can understand why people are curious abut this case. Hold that thought for a moment, as well.
`I want to take you to Las Vegas for a minute. We all go on vacation, and so do people from Las Vegas. They go away, sometimes tens of thousands of
miles away. And the next home owner that you`re about to meet did that, and then saw this on the home camera. While they were in Thailand, this
couple was in their home, rifling through, taking what they wanted and smiling.
`Hello, lady! You don`t know you`re being videotaped, and the whole country can see you now.
`You`re going to see more of this in a moment.
`(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
`[20:28:53]BANFIELD: There`s activity in your home. Yes, that`s the last thing you want to hear when your home security company calls you on your
cell phone and you`re halfway around the world on vacation.
`That`s exactly what happened to a Las Vegas couple when they were in Thailand. Then they saw it for themselves because that whole modern-day
technology thing where you can see it on your phone, what`s going on in your home -- well, it led to them seeing two criminals helping themself to
anything and everything they could get their hands on.
`So we thought it might be appropriate to show the whole country what these two people look like because they were dumb enough not to realize they`d be
on camera as they were pilfering through the house, stealing the Mercedes car keys and trying to actually dismantle the alarm system.
`Feast your eyes. Here she comes. Hello, darling! Oh, this looks like a good place. I wonder if there`s stuff to take. I think I may be able to
finds some keys to a very fancy car somewhere close by. But what`s this? The alarm system. I think I`ll cover my fingers so my fingerprints don`t
get on it.
`Don`t worry about it, sweetheart. We see your face, and everybody out there watching sees your friend`s face, too, the man and the woman who
thought no one could see them.
[20:30:00] Watch this. Here she comes. She`s looking for the keys. You`ll hear them jingle too as she gets them.
(BEEPING)
BANFIELD: And then she hears that.
(BEEPING)
BANFIELD: Yeah. You don`t want to hear that when you`re robbing a house, do you? She still thinks she can gets away with it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back door alarm. Front door alarm.
(BEEPING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back door alarm. The motion alarm.
(BEEPING)
BANFIELD: Doesn`t seem to scare her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Front door alarm.
(BEEPING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back door alarm.
(BEEPING)
BANFIELD: Yeah. It won`t get any better, honey. That`s the full alarm going off now. And again, she`s not scared. She just goes on about her business
with her male colleague and steals clothes and goods and electronics and the family car.
And that is what the couple had to watch while on vacation. Okay, guys. Danny? Bob? The evidence is pretty clear. They`re fully on camera. Is it
just a matter of finding them?
CEVALLOS: I hope so. I hope that whatever police agency is there will take this home invasion seriously. The other thing to consider too is, this
woman is covering her fingers. She could have just worn a glove. I don`t know why she had used.
BANFIELD: She`s an idiot.
CEVALLOS: But that would suggest to me that she`s aware that her prince might be out there in AFIS or in some database somewhere because she has
priors. So that might help take us a step further in finding who this person is. She seems to have some self-awareness and probably history.
BANFIELD: Do you know what is awesome about this? As I look at these nasty, nasty, awful, yucky, ugly American people if they are Americans, I think to
myself, thank God for the Cloud. Because once upon a time, Bob, these kinds of people would go and find a VCR that was recording the images and they
just destroy it.
SCHALK: Absolutely.
BANFIELD: But now they can`t.
SCHALK: Can`t destroy it. Now it`s on national television and you just hope that people are watching and people can identify them. The picture of the
male is high definition. That`s what a prosecutor wants. It is just a matter of when he pleads guilty if he gets arrested because there is no
wiggle room.
Secondarily they took a go 2015 Mercedes Benz which is going to have GPS OnStar. They`re going to be able to find the car eventually. They`re not
the smartest people in the world. If you`re going to do a burglary, I don`t care what it is, put a mask on.
BANFIELD: John and Jane dumb dumb. What I love the most is how close to the camera her face was and she thinks she is losing through this crime and
staring is to the camera as she thinks she is sleuthing through this crime and staring straight into the capturing image that the rest of us now get
to look at and hopefully to track down.
One quick question. Some of these states out there have one party consent rules whereby you can`t record somebody, their image or their audio unless
there`s one party in the conversation who consents. Clearly she wouldn`t consent. Is that count for criminal surveillance?
CEVALLOS: Usually they are premised on a reasonable expectation of privacy. There is no conversation here. This is their own home. These are intruders.
You`re allowed to record the vacant space in your home when you`re not there and there`s no conversation to invade. What do you say?
SCHALK: 100 percent agree.
CEVALLOS: That was easy. I just made it up.
BANFIELD: Let`s just go out with the image of John and Jane dumb dumb. So that yet again, everyone across America can feast your eyes on the two
worst people in the world today in my estimation. Worst people in the world right there. Caught on camera. Burglarizing.
By the way, I would love to know where the security company and the cops were. Isn`t that what they all supposed to do? Stop this from happening?
They got away. They got the stuff. There they are. They did not get away with anonymity. You think you`re so smart. Fingerprints.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Today the Ohio State University website says, together we remain unified in the face of adversity. While the school struggles to cope with
comprehending the car that ran into a bunch of people and the man who jump out and went on a stabbing spree. Investigators today are learning more.
In fact, Abdul Razak Ali Artan is a student who carried out the attack was inspired by ISIS propaganda. CNN has learned that he bought the knives that
he used on the day of the attack. WSYX reporter Rob Wells joins me live now from Columbus, Ohio. Rob, it seems like more and more, all the signs are
pointing toward terror.
ROB WELLS, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WSYX: It is. It was something that we heard about, that we are wondering about, Ashleigh. And today, it was
confirmed. I have to tell you. I actually visited the neighborhood where Artan was last living with his family in West Columbus. We talked to some
folks there.
They said they were simply stunned over these allegations and the new developments today. They said the family was quiet. They had only been here
in Central Ohio for just the last few years. This young man seemed to have everything going for him.
He recently graduated from Columbus State Community College here and had just enrolled within the last year at the Ohio State University where this
terrible attack took place. And to hear all this coming together with a young man who seemed to have so much and so much potential was really hard
for so many to actually understand today that we talked to.
BANFIELD: I just want to play one of the 911 calls, Rob, for a minute. Because you really got a sense of what it was like for the kids who went
through this by what they said live as it was happening. Have a listen as a fire alarm actually went off. And listen to the discourse between the two
on the phone.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911. Where is your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi. I`m at Ohio State right outside of Watts Hall and there was a guy who crashed his car into a bunch of people and ran out with
a knife chasing down people. This guy, we were all standing outside because the fire alarm went off.
[20:40:00] This guy in a Honda Civic came out, ran through crowd, jumped out of his car and started chasing after people with a knife and he was
running down Woodruff.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. Do you know why this guy did this? Is he a student?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We have no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fire alarm went off in our class and so everyone was outside waiting to go back inside and then he ran out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. Which building was this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was Watts Hall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. Do you think he set it?
(END VIDE CLIP)
BANFIELD: So, Rob, that last question, do you think he said it? It actually might makes sense. That a terrorist would set off an alarm, get into his
car, and then try to drive up on the sidewalk where so many kids had actually left the building and were there in crowds waiting to go back into
the building.
The authorities have said that actually is not what happened. But at the same time it is a bit of a blessing and a curse. So many kids outside and
yet also because the fire alarm went off, Rob, security was on the way. So this was stopped much sooner, wasn`t it?
WELLS: The timing is amazing, Ashleigh. As you just point out, how coincidental. Again, that alarm going off in that building right where as
that attack was taking place just moments later. We did understand that was a totally separate incident. Not set off by the attacker Artan in this
case.
We understand it was some sort of a gas malfunction. A gas leak is what it was thought to be in that building. Something malfunctioned,set off the
alarms as they are supposed to do. And within seconds to minutes, first responders were already on the scene.
But when they got there, as we now know, it was a much different situation. It wasn`t for what was going on in that building but as to what was going
on outside is that horrible scene unfolded so early yesterday morning.
BANFIELD: Steve Moore is the former Deputy Director of Public Safety at Pepperdine University. Steve, I want to read to you real quickly what the
Texas governor said today about this. He said a person would think twice before doing this on a Texas campus referring to the campus carry rule. I
want to get your thoughts on that.
STEVE MOORE, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY AT PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY: A person might do that but it wouldn`t stop them. I think the
time of person who is going in to do these things intends to die doing it. And so they`re not really worried about dying. What they`re worried about
is getting the most body count.
And so while I agree with the governor that you might stop him faster, it is not going to keep him from doing anything if he happens to live in
Texas. I can think of three or four mass shootings in San Antonio and the other areas.
BANFIELD: You don`t think the campus carry rule will get a breath of energy based on this?
MOORE: It might in Texas. I think there are so many -- so many moving parts when you start bringing guns on to campus. I mean, first of all, yes, could
you stop something? Yes. What we know from active shooter situations, is that for every minute before the person is interdicted by anybody, a person
dies.
So, yes. That has the potential of doing something. But at the same time, it has the potential of having guns in fraternity houses, guns in cars.
BANFIELD: I understand. Yeah. I hear you. There`s always a down side. I want to bring in my attorney on something here. Because clearly, there is a
big investigation going on right now. What else might have been out there? Did he have anybody he was working with? Were there accomplishes?
All those questions we want answers. And then comes his family. So guys, what are the rights of his family as the investigators descend into his
entire life and trying to figure out what they can dig up?
WELLS: Well, they have no legal obligation to cooperate. They can get and hire a family attorney. They can say, listen, we`re gonna speak to our
attorney. If you want to execute warrants, get warrants.
BANFIELD: Sure.
WELLS: We don`t know what they`ll gonna do at this point in time. But they have no obligation under any laws to cooperate with the investigation to a
certain extent other than if there are warrants, allow them to execute the warrants on the home and not to destroy evidence. But other than that, they
don`t have to do it.
BANFIELD: Danny Cevallos, Donald Trump is the president-elect and he has said, and I will quote him. When you get these terrorists, you have to take
out their families. He said it on Fox and Friends in December of 2015.
He may have been referring to people overseas. But if you have a terrorist and you have a family, what exactly are the protections other than I can
get a lawyer?
CEVALLOS: They haven`t changed since president-elect Trump was elected. He hasn`t yet changed the constitution and he hasn`t yet changed the warrant
requirement. Just as counsel said, you don`t need to cooperate.
By you, I mean his parents do not need to cooperate. They can hold the prosecution or the investigation to its burden of seeking and securing
warrants before they let them look at anything in the home and if they do it, then so be it.
BANFIELD: They`re not citizens or legal residents. Or at least this attacker was a legal permanent resident. That doesn`t change anything, does
it? They can get the full protection of constitution here on U.S. soil.
CEVALLOS: They do.
BANFIELD: Yeah.
CEVALLOS: They do.
BANFIELD: I want to leave it there as we continue to watch that investigation. There is also this video that we`ve been looking at. And we
are truly sick of reporting on this, but it is critical. That 2-year-old child crying over her mother.
[20:45:00] Trying to revive her as strange onlookers videotaped this. She is O.D.`ing on heroin in a dollar store. And her baby is trying to wake up
mommy. Now this mom has a whole new bag of problems.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Hey, I have such a great team, I`m telling you. Joey Jackson has joined the club. Thank you for being here. Bob Schalk is still here. It`s a
privilege to have you. Danny Cevallos as always. So you guys are gonna basically fill in the details here. We have a whole collection of stories I
want to show you.
The first one though is one we`ve covered before but we have an update. I won`t give that update until yet again, look at the video that got so
viral. People are starting to know more about the heroin epidemic. Because this woman O.D.`d in a dollar store with her little 2-year-old baby trying
to wake up mom. So let`s have a look at the picture.
[20:50:00] 0I got to tell you a little bit more about it in a moment. Have a look.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
(BABY CRYING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: What is upsetting, other than the image, is the sounds of this little toddler crying. The people who decided to videotaped it, they`re not
speaking English. I`m not sure what they`re saying, but we all have the same opinion. And that is that this is a crime. And I don`t think I`m
wrong.
JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: It is a crime but I think this something that transcends criminal activity. This mother needs help. Now, obviously,
the child, that poor kid, should be provided for and the mother should never be in that frame. It is horrible to look at. There is a larger
picture here.
BANFIELD: It is child endangerment. And she`s pleaded not guilty. I don`t get it. It is on video. How do you plead not guilty to child endangerment
when you are flat out?
CEVALLOS: We have an approach to justice in this country but it is a little different. We have a punitive justice system but we also have dependency
system where we intervene, and by we I mean the state, intervene in situations where children are in unsafe environments.
And we provided services not only to the child but to the parents to see if the ultimate goal should either be reunification with the parent or
termination of parental rights. And because those rights are so cherished, we have to be absolutely sure.
BANFIELD: All right. I want to move on to the next story. There is no dollar store theme on tonight`s program but this next story actually
happened in a dollar store as well. There is a fellow who robbed a dollar store and then ran for the hills but found the water instead.
And you`re about to watch the helicopter infrared video as they tracked him to a pond. Let`s look at it first. I`ll tell you a secret about what
happened in the pond in a moment. Take a peek.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went pretty deep. Crawling along the weeds there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we get closer to him, if you want to try to light him up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: I think light him up actually means put light on him and that`s exactly what happened. Look at these pictures. Three police officers with
guns surrounding him. Like creature from the black lagoon comes out of the swamp. Okay. Robert, the truth is, he ended up being prone and they lifted
up his shirt and they saw this big old tattoo on his tummy. The tattoo said, loyalty.
SCHALK: Gone fishing.
(LAUGHTER)
CEVALLOS: Night swim. Completely normal.
BANFIELD: He was in the water. Covered up completely right to his face.
JACKSON: Listen. The community should feel safe. They had helicopters here. They had canine dogs here. They had police there. You`re in a community
like this.
(CROSSTALK)
CEVALLOS: How wealthy is this county that they have an air force to go after the night swimmer to bring him to justice. This is really an
impressive community.
BANFIELD: Dumb criminal story and I love this because -- so we get to catch them and prosecute them. But he was allegedly robbing the dollar store, he
lifted up his shirt to cover his face. Guess what was on his tummy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tattoo.
BANFIELD: A loyalty tattoo.
(LAUGHTER)
BANFIELD: And when they found him, you know what they said? They said he looked at these three cops and said, that guy you`re looking for, he went
that way.
(LAUGHTER)
SCHALK: I was just thinking to swim.
CEVALLOS: And robbing the dollar store. Not exactly ambitious in the world of crime, right? He`s really going to yield big payday.
JACKSON: Not at all. No one was hurt. That`s the good news.
BANFIELD: We`re going to break but not before I tell you what we`re doing after the break. I don`t even know how to describe this former playboy
playmate other than she`s pretty.
But apparently, she is too sexy for herself. Because she secretly photographed a nude 70-year-old woman in the shower. And then posted this.
If I can`t unsee this, then you can`t either. You`re so funny. Except you`re not.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Joey, Bob, and Danny are back with me. And I picked this one just for you guys. A playmate decided to post a picture. Not the picture you
would think. She photographed a 70-year-old woman showering at her gym and then posted it. We`ve had to pixel ate it, obviously.
She thinks she is so funny to say, if I can`t unsee this thing, you can`t either. And then here`s what happened. Once she got outed for this Snapchat
photo, she said this apology. I have chosen to do what I do for a living because I love the female body. And I know that body shaming is wrong. And
that`s not what I`m about.
That photo was taken to be part of a personal conversation with a girlfriend. And because I am new to Snapchat, I really didn`t realize that
I had posted it and then it was a huge mistake. And yet, she is pleaded not guilty. Her charge is invasion of privacy. How did she gets plead not
guilty but apologize at the same time?
CEVALLOS: She absolutely does two things. First, there is nothing wrong with pleading not guilty, holding the government to its burden and getting
a favorable plea bargain in the end.
And secondly, I don`t care what Joey Jackson tells you, I only read that magazine for the article.
(CROSSTALK)
JACKSON: This is a teachable moment. Quite frankly. And the reality is she should use her celebrity to speak to the issue of body shaming and how it
is important and inappropriate.
BANFIELD: This next one is not a teachable moment. Because nobody should ever open the emergency exit on a door. Specially when the United Airlines
flight is on the tarmac. It`s like amid taxi. Watch the highlighted area. She jumped out of the emergency exit and then just high tailed it across
the tarmac. On an active taxi area. This is actually a federal crime, isn`t it?
SCHALK: I`ve always wanted to take slide. I would never go to that length. The question is who was she sitting next to or what was in her luggage?
BANFIELD: Somebody said all they saw was sunlight all of a sudden.
JACKSON: I think it`s bigger than that. I think it could be a mental health issue. Obviously, she was taken for evaluation to see psychiatrically what
was going on there. There could be bigger problems.
BANFIELD: You hit the nail on the head.
JACKSON: Not everyone should be prosecuted.
BANFIELD: You hit the nail on the head because they actually decided not to charge her. And she is getting psychologically evaluated. A teaching moment
don`t do it. Like Casey Anthony because -- because one of her lawyers has been arrested on cocaine -- not trafficking. He is being alleged to have
agreed to transport cocaine between two south American countries. How that happened? A lawyer should know better, right?
CEVALLOS: Defense attorneys. We should know better than anybody that crime does not pay. It just boggles my mind, right Bob?
SCHALK: And this is the second arrest for him. This isn`t his first foray into criminal justice system as a defendant.
BANFIELD: No. He`s been in the pokey.
SCHALK: Yes. So, I mean, apparently he doesn`t learn.
JACKSON: Yeah. Although this crime pays significantly if he would have gotten away with it because it is the sale of drugs. But yes, he should
have known better.
BANFIELD: This is not just little. It is like 1,500 kilograms of cocaine as well. And Todd Macaluso. I remember covering him. I was in the courtroom.
JACKSON: And his co-conspirator gave him up. The person who he was supposed to be. You know what he`s going to do? And they`re waiting for him. And
he`s standing in front of a judge.
CEVALLOS: No loyalty among these guys.
BANFIELD: No honor among thieves. No better. I love it. Joey, Bob, Danny, thank you all. I appreciate it. Thank you, everybody, for watching as well.
It`s great to have you with us. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. See you tomorrow night. Stay tune right now. FORENSIC FILES starts right away. Thanks, guys.
[21:00:00]
END
